What is 24 Sơn Hướng?

# What are the 24 Mountain Directions?

What are the 24 Mountain Directions?

The 24 Mountain Directions (二十四山) are a way of dividing the compass ring on a feng shui compass into 24 equal parts, each 15 degrees wide. The word "mountain" here does not refer only to mountains but carries the meaning of "direction", while "facing" refers to the orientation of a structure. This system helps practitioners determine precisely the coordinates of a house, grave or shop, and from there assess fortune and misfortune based on the Five Elements, the Eight Trigrams, the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and the various feng shui schools.

What is the origin and structure of the 24 Mountain Directions?

The 24 mountains are formed from the combination of 8 Heavenly Stems (excluding Mậu and Kỷ), 12 Earthly Branches and 4 trigrams Càn, Khôn, Cấn, Tốn. Each mountain has its own element, trigram and degree range. For example, the Tý mountain sits due north, belongs to the Water element, the Khảm trigram, and governs the range from 352.5 to 7.5 degrees; the Ngọ mountain sits due south, the Fire element, the Ly trigram, roughly 172.5 to 187.5 degrees. The remaining mountains such as Giáp, Ất, Mão, Thìn, Tỵ, Bính, Đinh, Mùi, Thân, Canh, Tân, Tuất, Hợi, Nhâm, Quý, Sửu, Dần, Càn, Khôn, Cấn and Tốn also have their own positions and characteristics.

How are the 24 Mountain Directions used in practice?

People use a feng shui compass (la kinh) to measure direction. Once the mountain of the sitting position and the facing direction have been determined, the practitioner combines this with the fate of the occupant, the period cycles (eighth and ninth periods), and factors such as landform and water methods to reach a judgement. Each mountain can carry different good or bad meanings depending on how it combines with other mountains and on timing. For instance, the Càn mountain belongs to the West Four Houses, the Metal element, and represents heaven, the father, the head of the household; the Thân mountain belongs to the Thân Tý Thìn triple harmony, the Water element, and sits in the Khôn palace.

How do you distinguish the 24 Mountain Directions from easily confused terms?

The 24 Mountain Directions are often confused with "bát trạch" (eight directions) or "bát quái" (eight trigrams). In fact, the 24 mountains are a more detailed system, dividing each trigram into 3 mountains. It also differs from "tọa hướng" (sitting and facing, where sitting is the position behind and facing is the frontage) and from "long mạch" (dragon veins, the flow of earth energy). Understanding the 24 mountains correctly helps avoid confusion when measuring direction and interpreting results.

*Note: This is traditional knowledge offered for reference, and has not been verified by science. Readers should consider carefully before applying it in practice.*

How do the schools understand the 24 Mountain Directions differently?

• The Tam Hợp (Triple Harmony) school: Emphasises combining the 24 mountains according to triple harmony groups (such as Thân Tý Thìn, Dần Ngọ Tuất) to judge fortune and misfortune based on the mutually generating and overcoming relationships among the mountains and the period cycles.
• The Bát Trạch (Eight Houses) school: Uses the 24 mountains to distinguish eight good and bad directions according to the trigram fate of the household head, often combined with factors such as East Four Houses and West Four Houses when choosing a house orientation.
• The Huyền Không Phi Tinh (Flying Star) school: Applies the 24 mountains to determine the exact sitting and facing, then places flying stars according to period and time, interpreting shifts in the energy field for each mountain.

Which articles relate to the 24 Mountain Directions?

• What is feng shui? Foundational principles and how to apply them
• The Giáp mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and how to interpret it
• The Càn mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and how to interpret it
• The Thân mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and how to interpret it
• The Dần mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and how to interpret it
• The Mùi mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and in-depth interpretation
• The Tỵ mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and in-depth interpretation
• The Hợi mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and in-depth interpretation
• The Ngọ mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and how to interpret it
• The Đinh mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and how to interpret it
• The Tý mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and how to interpret it
• The Ất mountain direction among the 24 feng shui mountain directions: meaning and in-depth interpretation

What does the table of the 24 mountain directions look like?

24 mountains = 8 Heavenly Stems + 12 Earthly Branches + 4 trigrams. Mậu and Kỷ have no mountain because these two stems belong to Earth and correspond to the central palace, and the central palace has no direction. The four principal trigrams (Khảm, Ly, Chấn, Đoài) also have no mountains of their own because their positions are already occupied by Tý, Ngọ, Mão and Dậu.

Each 45° direction contains exactly three mountains, and the middle mountain always carries the name of that direction itself, Tý due north, Ngọ due south.

The Tý mountain straddles the 0° mark, so its degree range reads from 352.5° round to 7.5°.

The table does not include a column for the yin or yang of each mountain, because Huyền Không schools assign these differently, and you should follow the school used by your own teacher or texts.

The figures in the table match the results of the lookup tools on Nhật Nguyệt.